Saturday, September 21, 2013

Will Julian Castro give the United Nations control of the Alamo?!?

The New Battle of the Alamo by George Rodriguez

Texans should be aware that San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro may have
started a new “battle of the Alamo”. He has made some initial moves to
allow the United Nations to influence and even manage the Alamo, and the
San Antonio Express/News is doing a soft sell of the idea in their
Sunday, September 15 opinion page. It has been reported that Mayor
Castro and his close ally, City Councilman Diego Bernal, have been
meeting with U.S. Department of Interior officials about the future of
San Antonio’s historical missions. Castro wants to make the missions a
greater tourist attraction by designating them national and world
cultural treasures.

But there is the catch in designating the
Alamo and the other missions “world cultural heritage” sites. Castro and
Bernal want the United Nations’ UNESCO or United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization to do the designation. The UNESCO
is a specialized agency of the U.N. whose purpose is to contribute to
peace and security by promoting international collaboration through
education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect
for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental
freedom proclaimed in the U.N. Charter. According to their charter,
UNESCO’s aim is "to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication
of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through
education, the sciences, culture, communication and information".

It is ironic that while many Texans across the state talk about the
dangers of the UN’s Agenda 21, the Alamo, the very symbol of Texas
liberty and freedom, may fall under U.N. influence. Castro wants to
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to help manage the Alamo. The World
Heritage Committee has a list of recognized sites that are managed
through legal agreements regarding cultural heritage for protecting
diversity. Quite simply, the U.N. would manage the Alamo under these
agreements.

The influence of the U.N. has already been felt
when there was a proposed hotel tower for the old Joske’s building near
the Alamo. But because it could have jeopardized the World Heritage Site
status for the Alamo and the other four missions, the proposed hotel
tower was nixed. The U.S. National Park Service, which plays a key role
in nominating U.S. sites, warned Castro that such a skyscraper so close
to the Alamo could be a deal breaker. Apparently, the U.N.’s World
Heritage Sites had threatened to yank the status because of the
potential for new development. Thus, the U.N. influenced a local issue
and decision.

The National Park Service is proposing World Heritage status for 14
new American sites over the next 10 years, potentially raising the
number of U.S. sites from 21 to 35. One of them comprises five
18th-century Spanish missions along the San Antonio River. Four form a
National Historical Park. The fifth and oldest, run by the Daughters of
the Republic of Texas, was founded as San Antonio de Valero. We know it
as the Alamo.

The proposal argues that these Franciscan missions meet the World
Heritage status requirement of “outstanding universal value” because of
their role in Spain's global expansion. They are living symbols of how
Spain shaped history. [Emphasis Ours]

The World Heritage List is perhaps not well understood in the United
States, even though America took the lead in creating it 41 years ago.
Probably the most successful international program for preservation and
conservation, World Heritage is a powerful brand for overseas visitors.
Tour operators feature World Heritage sites in their advertisements.
Some travelers have World Heritage bucket lists, visiting as many of the
962 sites as they can.

Notably, foreign visitors tend to spend more on their trips than domestic travelers.

The San Antonio study, by the Harbinger Consulting Group, was
commissioned by Bexar County and takes a hard look at the likely
economic benefit of the missions being named a World Heritage Site.

Bottom Line: Julian Castro is working with the United Nations to redefine the cradle of Texas liberty into a "living symbol of how Spain shaped history" under the guise of economic development.

13 comments:

“They used to take us there when we were schoolchildren,” Rosie Castro told The New York Times Magazine. “They told us how glorious that battle was. When I grew up I learned that the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them. But as a little girl I got the message — we were losers. I can truly say that I hate that place and everything it stands for.” – Rosie Castro ( mother of Mayor Julian Castro and Rep. Joaquin Castro)

The Grand Canyon, the Florida Everglades, the Great Smoky Mountains, Independence Hall, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mammoth Cave, Monticello, and the Statue of LIBERTY are all UNESCO World Heritage sites as well.

Clearly Texas teabaggers are too stupid to realize the honor that would be conferred on these historic landmarks to attain worldwide recognition as such an important part of the heritage of not just Texas, not just the US, but the world.

What an idiotic piece of writing. It is an insult to the intelligence of all Texans. Like the commentator above, Galveston Duck, mentions, there are ALREADY over 20 sites in the United States that have the honor of being placed on the World Heritage Site list....among them Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite, the Everglades, the Great Smokey Mountains, the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, the volcanoes of Hawaii, as well as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Tower of London, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis, the entire Vatican, the entire city centers of Florence, Rome, Paris, Naples, Prague, Brasilia, Mexico City, Salzburg Austria, the Iguazu Falls, the Sydney Opera House, ...need I go on? Do you REALLY think that the United Nations "manages" these entire cities, mountain ranges, coral reef systems , waterfalls, volcanoes, and national parks? If you do, then you are a complete idiot who deserves NO attention and should only be laughed at for incompetence.